Part of Concepts of Ahl as-Sunnah (series completed)
· Lesson 514 of 1251
Summary of Sunni concepts | Concept (512) | Issues of disagreement and issues of diligence
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Transcript
Machine translation — may contain errors
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A summary of the concepts held by the Ahl al-Sunnah.
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Issues of disagreement and issues of ijtihad (independent legal reasoning).
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Some people fail to distinguish between issues of disagreement and issues of ijtihad.
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It is common among those who hold this erroneous understanding
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to cite the maxim: "There is no censure in matters of disagreement."
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This is a mistaken maxim and a corrupt belief,
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for not every disagreement is considered valid such that one may act upon it in any of its forms.
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Rather, any disagreement that contradicts a text from the Qur'an or the Sunnah
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is an irregular, invalid disagreement that is rejected upon the one who holds it.
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A consequence of this corrupt assertion
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is that censure in the Sharia of Islam would be limited
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only to those matters that are definitively and necessarily known to be prohibited by consensus.
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Disagreement is not an argument in itself;
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rather, the Qur'an and the Sunnah are the argument against those who disagree, whether they are of the early or later generations.
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A scholar may disagree on an issue
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because the hadith concerning it did not reach him,
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or because he believed it to be inauthentic,
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or because he was unaware of it at the time of the disagreement.
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In such cases, it is not permissible to follow that scholar when there is evidence that contradicts his view,
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among other reasons mentioned by Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah in his valuable book,
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"Raf' al-Malam 'an al-A'immah al-A'lam" (Removing Blame from the Illustrious Imams).
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Among the implications of this corrupt assertion
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is a dangerous theological deviation.
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For when an authentic, established Sunnah from the Prophet, peace be upon him, is rejected
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simply because someone has disagreed on the matter,
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this implies that the statements and commands of the Prophet, peace be upon him,
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only acquire their legitimacy when people agree upon them.
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This is a dangerous path that contradicts the foundation of Islam,
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which means submission to the commands of Allah the Exalted
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and the commands of His Messenger, peace be upon him.
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The correct expression that is acceptable in this field
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is: "There is no censure in matters of ijtihad."
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Matters of ijtihad are those in which there is no binding evidence or explicit text
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that must be followed as an apparent obligation,
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or where the ijtihad pertains to the fiqh of balancing interests and harms.
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In such cases, ijtihad is permissible due to the conflict or obscurity of the evidence,
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and a person may adopt what his own ijtihad leads him to if he is a scholar,
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or what he finds reassuring and trusts from the ijtihad of the scholars if he is a follower.